


The Five People You Meet In Heaven

by TrebleandBass (May_Seward)



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Future Fic, Heavy Angst, I just really needed to cry so i wrote the angstiest thing i could think of, Like seriously heavy, M/M, The night before viktuuri's wedding, im sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-23
Updated: 2017-02-23
Packaged: 2018-09-26 09:40:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9883847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/May_Seward/pseuds/TrebleandBass
Summary: On the night before his wedding, Viktor is hit by a car. Turns out it isnt always easy to figure out you're dying.





	

**Author's Note:**

> FAIR WARNING: this one doesn't get a happy ending guys.
> 
> Please don't hate me.

Consciousness returned to Viktor slowly. A flash of pain lanced behind his eyes and then it was gone and he was left feeling oddly weightless. As feeling returned to his body, he sat up and looked around. Viktor couldn’t believe his eyes.

He was sitting in the middle of his home rink back in St Petersburg. It appeared to be the middle of the night, shafts of moonlight painting shadows on the ice below, stars just visible through the high vaulted windows.

‘Hello?’ Viktor called out. His voice echoed into silence but he heard no reply.

Except... Viktor stood, surprised to find he was wearing his training clothes and his ice skates, and turned around.

A woman was skating towards him, long platinum blonde hair flying out behind her. She came to a graceful halt a few feet away from him. ‘Vitya,’ she said softly and stepped forward so she was standing in one of the shafts of moonlight. Her hair glowed under it, sparkling silver.

‘Mama?’ Viktor asked, recognition dawning.

‘My Vitya,’ she replied.

‘Mama, what are you doing here?’ Viktor asked, voice hoarse. He reached out to her, but as soon as she did, she stepped back into shadow.

‘I want to show you something. Come on!’

Viktor nodded and followed her in a daze. As he did, the scene around him changed. The walls around the rink crumbled around him and the ice filled with dozens of people, fading into existence before his eyes. ‘Mama? What is happening?’ Viktor asked, but she just turned around and raised her arms.

‘Come on Vitya!’ she called, smile warm and welcoming. ‘You can do it!’

Her arms were so inviting, promising warmth and safety, that Viktor found himself reaching out to her again, skating towards her at speed. It had been so long since he had felt his mother’s arms around him and in that moment he felt the years of separation like an ache. There was something he had to tell her. Something important, so _vitally_ important and singularly wonderful that he picked up speed again, desperate to get to her, to tell her this wonderful important thing, but no matter how fast he skated, she always seemed just out of reach.

‘Mama! Look, mama I’m doing it!’ Another voice, a young boy’s filled the otherwise silent air around him and Viktor skidded to a stop and whirled out of the way just in time to see a small boy making his shaky way across the ice towards his mother. A boy with a shock of silver-white hair tucked underneath a red beanie hat and bright blue eyes behind an almost unnoticeable spray of freckles across his nose.

‘Come on, Vitya!’ his mother called to the boy and the boy took another step forward, squealing as he started to fall, but she scooped him up before he could hit the ice and pulled him up into her arms. ‘Well done, Vitya!’ she laughed and nuzzled his nose with hers. ‘I knew you could do it!’ The boy in his arms giggled and wrapped his arms around her neck. ‘Come on, let’s go home.’ As she turned away from Viktor and disappeared into the ghostly crowd, Viktor’s eyes met those of the boy in her arms. The boy waved.

He was left feeling hollow, the faint memories of her leaving, of her dying, left him feeling strangely hollow.

All that was forgotten, however, as Viktor cried out in pain and clutched his chest, falling to his knees.

* * *

_‘Anything?’ Chris demanded, pacing a stark white corridor._

_Yakov shook his head. ‘Yuuri isn’t answering his phone.’_

_Chris smacked his head. ‘Of course not. Phichit will have confiscated it. I’ll try his phone.’_

_‘I’ll call Yura,’ Mila suggested, face as pale as the wall she was leaned against._

Come on, boys, _Chris begged silently._ Pick up. Please pick up... 

* * *

‘Hurts, doesn’t it?’ a voice Viktor recognised asked from behind him.

‘What is it?’ Viktor gasped, trying to breathe through the pain.

Yakov walked around so he was facing Viktor with a fond smile. ‘Nothing you can do anything about,’ he shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal, offering a hand out to help Viktor to his feet. Viktor took his hand gratefully and by the time he was standing again, the pain in his chest had vanished. So had the outdoor rink full of people. He was back in his home rink again.

‘I have to say, I’m surprised,’ Yakov said gruffly, once Viktor had brushed himself off. ‘You don’t usually come to me for advice.’

‘I don’t understand,’ Viktor replied. ‘I don’t understand what I’m doing here. And I always come to you for advice,’ he added. ‘You’re my coach.’

Yakov shook his head. ‘You never listen though.’

Viktor grinned. ‘True.’

‘You have questions,’ Yakov observed.

‘I already asked you one.’

‘The answers to those questions don’t matter.’

Viktor frowned.

‘Then which answers matter?’

‘I can’t tell you.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because you don’t listen.’

Viktor frowned. ‘I will. I will now,’ he insisted.

‘Then ask me a question.’

Viktor said the first thing that popped into his head. ‘Will I ever be ready to retire?’ he asked.

Yakov looked at him for a moment. ‘Do you think so?’

Viktor put a hand to his chin in thought. ‘I hope so. I need to, right? Even I can admit that my competitive skating career is over, right?’ He paused, remembering. ‘I’m thirty years old. The fact that I’ve lasted this long is a miracle.’ He grinned. ‘Besides, I have different priorities now.’

‘You had talent, Viktor,’ Yakov agreed. ‘I know you had a year of coaching Katsuki but you still have a lot to learn if you’re going to be a coach.’

‘Like listening,’ Viktor observed.

Yakov nodded. ‘Like listening.’ His eyes went soft for a moment. ‘Vitya,’ he said quietly. ‘I’m so, sorry.’

Taken aback, Viktor took a step closer, searching Yakov’s face. ‘Sorry for what?’

'I'm going to miss you, kid.'

Viktor pulled Yakov into a tight hug. 'I'm going to miss you too, Yakov.'

* * *

_‘Come on, Phiiiiiiichiiiiiit,’ Yuuri begged. ‘Please I just wanna hear his voice!’_

_Phichit laughed and held his phone out of reach. ‘Oh no you don’t! You’re going to have to wait until tomorrow! It’s bad luck!’_

_‘Technically, that’s not true,’ Yurio drawled from his seat at the bar next to Phichit. ‘Seeing him in his white dress would be bad luck.’_

_‘Yurio!’ Phichit complained, sending a playful glare his way. ‘You’re not helping!’_

_Yurio took another sip of his drink. ‘I don’t know about that,’ he said, nodding towards Yuuri who had snatched Phichit’s phone out of his hand when he was distracted._

_‘You little traitor!’ Phichit scolded, snatching it back and ending the call Yuuri had placed to Viktor’s number. ‘Come on man, you’ll see him tomorrow.’_

_‘Guys,’ Yurio snapped, suddenly serious. He had his own phone to his ear and was rapidly losing what little colour he had. ‘We need to go right now.’_

* * *

‘Viktor!’

Viktor spun around again to see Chris skating towards him. He was dressed in an all-black performance outfit, covered head to toe in black sequins until he looked more like an obsidian statue of the Swiss skater than the real thing.

‘What are you doing in St Petersburg, Chris?’

‘Doesn’t matter,’ Chris waved a dismissive hand. He looked Viktor over a little sadly. ‘Join me for a swim?’ he asked instead and Viktor raised his eyebrows.

‘We’re in a skating rink,’ he pointed out.

‘Are we?’ Chris asked and Viktor looked around again, gasping in surprise. Yakov and the St Petersburg rink had both vanished.

‘Come on, Viktor!’ Chris called, dive bombing into the pool that had just appeared at Viktor’s feet. Viktor laughed and jumped in too, forgetting about his training gear for a moment. He remembered as he hit the water, panicking for a second before looking down to see that he was in fact wearing swimming shorts. He broke through the surface and found Chris watching him, chest deep in cool water. ‘I’m glad I met you, Viktor,’ he said, none of his usual innuendo present in his voice.

‘You’re a good friend, Chris,’ Viktor told him and he meant it. Chris had been a good friend to Viktor for many years. Viktor had been best man at Chris’s wedding, just as Chris was about to be best man at Viktor’s.

‘Yuuri!’ Viktor remembered, wondering how on earth it was possible he could have forgotten someone so important. ‘I need to get to Hasetsu! I can’t be in Russia! I’m getting married in Japan tomorrow!’ In a panic, he tried to scramble out of the pool but Chris just laughed.

‘Relax, Viktor,’ he smirked. ‘Yuuri will be fine. I will be there for him, I promise.’ When Viktor didn’t look convinced, Chris said, ‘Don’t leave, Viktor,’ and shook water out of his eyes. Then, Chris pulled Viktor back into the pool.

Viktor let out a yelp that turned into a scream as pain, white hot and blinding, ripped through his chest, frying his insides. He fell heavily into the water, sinking down, down, down... He could feel Chris trying to pull him out, but he was flailing and couldn’t breathe. The pain was so intense, Viktor thought he would black out. In fact, he must have done, because the next thing he knew, strong arms were hoisting him from under his shoulders and then Viktor was lying on ice again.

* * *

_Yuuri burst through the hospital doors, face paler than Yuri had ever seen him. Phichit babbled the whole ride to the emergency room, gripping Yuuri’s shoulder, the only thing stopping his thoughts rapidly spiraling out of control._

_‘I need to find my fiance,’ Yuuri announced at the nurse’s desk. ‘Now!’_

_‘What’s her name?’ the nurse asked and Yuuri looked like he was about to punch a wall._

_‘Viktor,’ he said, brown eyes wild. ‘Viktor Nikiforov.’_

_The nurse nodded, flushing a little in embarrassment at the mistake. ‘I’ll see what I can find out.’_

* * *

‘Yurio?’ Viktor asked, panting up at his saviour from his position lying prone on his back.

The blond Russian glared down at him. ‘After everything, you thought I was just going to let you drown?’

Viktor winced as another lance of pain exploded in his chest, leaving him heaving for breath and blinking away stars. ‘What is happening to me?’ he whined. ‘Help me!’

‘Just give it a minute,’ Yurio scoffed and sat down cross-legged in front of Viktor. ‘I wanted to talk about my short program for next season,’ he said, staring at one of his animal printed shoes. ‘We were going to choreograph it together.’

Dispite his pain, which was actually easing a little, Viktor smirked. ‘I remember.’

‘I want the theme to be memory,’ Yurio said.

‘I didn’t think you had decided yet,’ Viktor replied. He managed to sit up. He was once again back at the rink in St Petersburg, grey predawn light just beginning to soften the harsh shadows of the deserted room. Viktor began to shiver.

‘Well I’ve decided now,’ Yurio confirmed, though he didn’t look happy about it.

‘Okay,’ Viktor said, trying to corral his thoughts into some semblance of sanity in this ever changing insane place. ‘What sort of memory? A happy memory? A sad memory?’

Yurio frowned. ‘I want it to remember you.’

Viktor laughed, which hurt his ribs, but he smiled down at Yurio. ‘Why me?’

Yurio didn’t have to look up to him anymore, he was around Viktor’s height now. At eighteen, he was losing his boyish looks and filled out into the broader physique of an adult. His hair was longer, too, just long enough he preferred to keep it tied back now. At the moment, he was sporting a bun, which revealed his face and made it difficult for him to hide. There was something distressed in his eyes, a tension in his carefully neutral expression.

‘You’ve grown so much, Yurio,’ Viktor said softly. ‘You don’t need me anymore.’

‘You were going to be my coach,’ Yurio countered. ‘You were going to get me gold at the Grand Prix final and the Worlds.’

‘You already have both of those,’ Viktor retorted. He took in Yurio’s expression for a moment and quirked an eyebrow. ‘But not enough, huh?’

‘How can I get better without you?’ Yurio demanded, letting his anger show through.

Viktor laughed. ‘Chris said the same thing when I retired the first time,’ he laughed. ‘Turns out having two Yuris leads to some interesting competitions. You will still have Yuuri.’

‘He wants to retire too,’ Yurio frowned.

‘Then we can both be your coaches!’ Viktor pointed out.

Yurio’s gaze found his feet again. ‘I guess.’

‘Yurio...’ Viktor put a gentle hand on Yurio’s shoe. ‘What’s wrong, Yurio?’

‘I can’t do it!’ Yurio growled, smacking his hand away. He stood up, slipping a little on the ice since he wasn’t wearing skates. ‘Don’t do this to me old man! I can’t say it-’

‘Yuri!’ Viktor called after him, but Yurio had already disappeared.

* * *

_‘Over here!’ Chris waved a distraught Yuuri, Phichit and Yurio over to where their little group was huddled. ‘Where is he?’ Yuuri demanded, untangling himself from Chris and backing a safe distance away. Chris pointed to one of the beds. The curtains were drawn so nobody could see in, but they could hear a flurry of activity nonetheless._

_‘What happened?’ Yurio demanded._

_‘I’m sorry, Yuuri,’ Chris murmured. ‘He was drunk. He thought he saw you across the road...’_

_‘No!’ Yuuri reached out a hand and gripped Phichit, the nearest person to him._

_‘Why didn’t you stop him?’ Yurio demanded and Chris choked on tears._

_‘I tried, it happened too fast! I-’_

_Behind the curtain, a heart monitor screamed._

* * *

Electricity shocked through Viktor’s chest, leaving him gasping, just a flash of pain and then gone again. Once again, lying sprawled on the cold ice, tears leaked through his closed eyelids. Yurio had abandoned him. He was alone in this place and this pain scared him more than he had let on when Yurio had been there.

‘Yuuri!’ he screamed, desperate for the comforting touch of his fiance, the soothing sound of his voice, the beauty of him to distract him from this terrible, terrible pain. ‘ _Yuuri_!’ he screamed again, more desperate this time.

‘Vitya.’

Viktor let out a sob at the sound. That one word sounded like food smelled to a starving man. Viktor opened his eyes and looked into the chocolate brown irises of the love of his life.

Yuuri stroked one hand over Viktor’s cheek. ‘It’s alright,’ he said softly. ‘I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.’

‘What is happening to me?’ Viktor begged of him. ‘What-’

‘Sshhhh...’ Yuuri hushed, brushing his thumb under Viktor’s eyes to wipe away his tears. ‘Everything is going to be okay. You’re going to be fine.’

‘Promise?’ Viktor asked. Yuuri nodded, offering a reassuring smile but didn’t say anything. ‘I’m scared,’ Viktor whispered.

‘I know, darling. You don’t have to be scared.’

‘Can you hold me?’ Viktor asked, needing it like he had needed his mother earlier.

‘Always,’ Yuuri replied, so calm. He lay down on the ice and wrapped his arms around Viktor, letting him rest his head on Yuuri’s chest.

Another bout of electric pain bolted through Viktor’s chest and he cried out, muffling the sound in Yuuri’s shirt. He cried, sobbing into his fiance’s chest, clinging onto him for dear life. Yuuri ran his hands through Viktor’s hair, murmuring soft soothing words in his ear.

‘I have an idea,’ Yuuri announced and gently nudged Viktor off him so he could sit up. ‘Dance with me.’ Yuuri offered Viktor his hand. ‘Dance with me, Viktor. One last time.’

Shaking like a leaf, Viktor reached out his hand.

Yuuri was beautiful, elegantly dressed in what Viktor recognised as his exhibition costume from their first year together. Even now it was still their favourite. Yuuri gripped Viktor’s hand and began to move.

‘Don’t let go,’ Viktor insisted, partially because Yuuri was most of the reason he was upright, and partly because Viktor was so very, very afraid. ‘Promise me you won’t let go.’

‘I promise,’ Yuuri replied, his hand cupping Viktor’s cheek.

Hand in hand, they moved together, the ghostly echo of the song that had brought them together ringing through the empty room. The grey light had turned into faint hues of pink and purple, the first rays of sun threatening to make an appearance.

‘Not long now,’ Yuuri promised.

* * *

_‘Viktor!’ Yuuri cried out, lunging towards the curtain. Chris and Yurio grabbed for him at the same time._

_Don’t get in the way,’ Chris muttered, but Yuuri wasn’t listening. He needed to get to Viktor, needed to be with him, needed it so desperately he was afraid his heart would stop too. He fought against Chris's grip but Phichit moved to stand in the way._

_A doctor pulled the curtain back and wheeled a crash cart into the fray. Through the frenzy and the bruises and blood, Yuuri glimpsed a shock of silver hair and sagged, suddenly a dead weight in Chris' arms._

_One of the nurses called, 'Clear!’_

* * *

Viktor yelled out in pain at another shock, stumbling, falling to his knees. His tears splashed onto the ice below him as he gripped Yuuri by the shoulders.

‘Make it stop!’ Viktor yelled and doubled over at another stab of pain, lower, this time. He drew his arms around his abdomen defensively and when Yuuri gripped his forearms, his hands came away red. ‘Make it stop!’

‘I can’t,’ Yuuri murmured and there was fear in his voice where there hadn’t been before. ‘I’m sorry, Viktor, I can’t.’

‘Because I’m dying?’ Viktor grunted. ‘I’m dying... aren’t I?’

Yuuri nodded and shifted positions so Viktor’s head was cradled in his lap. Viktor heaved and shook as his body rebelled against him, shivering from more than just the cold. Yuuri rocked him back and forth, carding the fingers of one hand through Viktor’s hair, the other supporting Viktor’s shoulders.

‘This...’ Viktor gasped. ‘This... isn’t real, is it? It's in my head.’

Another bout of electricity jolted through him, making him jerk and cry out.

‘Yuuri, I’m scared!’ Viktor sobbed.

‘It’s okay,’ Yuuri whispered. ‘It will all be over soon.’

The electricity subsided and the world went a little fuzzy. A high buzzing noise was ringing in Viktor’s ears.

‘I’m sorry,’ Viktor shuddered the words through teeth clenched tightly against the pain. He reached out a hand to touch Yuuri’s beautiful face. ‘I’m sorry I never got to... to marry you.’

Yuuri removed his hand from Viktor’s hair to clasp Viktor’s hand in his. He kissed the knuckle on Viktor’s ring finger and then his own, right below where two gold bands glinted in the light of dawn.

‘I don’t know about you,’ Yuuri said softly, eyes brimming with tears, but a smile steadfastly in place. ‘But we look pretty married to me.’

Viktor let out a shaky laugh that sent pain rushing all over. ‘Yeah we do, don’t we?’ Viktor met Yuuri’s gaze, brown eyes steady, calm and brave for him because it was what he needed. ‘I love you, Yuuri Katsuki,’ he said as fiercely as he could manage.

Yuuri smiled and it was warm, like home. ‘I love you too, Viktor.’

Another wave had him arching his back, mouth falling open in a silent scream. Yuuri kissed his forehead and wiped at his sweaty brow, but even though he wasn’t really there, Yuuri’s hands were shaking too. ‘Yuuri?’ Viktor whimpered, desperately fighting to stay awake despite his failing body. ‘I can’t feel my legs.’

‘I know,’ Yuuri murmured. ‘It’s okay.’

‘We didn’t get to spend the rest of our lives together.’

Yuuri raised an eyebrow. ‘Didn’t we? Look.’ he nodded to something behind Viktor and he turned his head slightly to see what Yuuri was looking at.

Two men had joined them on the ice, one with salt-and-pepper-grey hair and glasses, the other balding with white hair still gracing his temples. Behind them, a young girl with blonde hair skated, one arm out to steady herself, the other hand holding tight to another man with blonde hair dusted with grey.

'It's Yurio,' Viktor mumbled, his eyelids fluttering.

'And his daughter,' Yuuri supplied.

A dog bounded into the scene, young and yapping at old Viktor and Yuuri's legs.

'We look happy,' Viktor sighed.

'We were,' Yuuri assured him. 'Even if it wasn't for as long as we would like.'

Viktor turned to gaze up at the Yuuri beside him again. He wanted to cup his face but his arm wouldn't move. Instead he simply said, 'Thank you,' and closed his eyes just as the sun broke over the horizon.

The last thing he knew was the feeling of Yuuri's lips on his forehead and a whispered, 'Thank you, Vitya. Thank you for everything.'

Then pure white light burst through the darkness of his closed lids and Viktor Nikiforov slipped away.

* * *

Yuuri laid flowers at the foot of the gravestone and patted the weathered stone fondly.

'You should have seen Tatiana today, Vitya,' he said, sitting down on a bench opposite the grave. 'Out on the ice. She takes after you out there, all grace and power. It's beautiful to watch. She calls you grandpa you, know? Grandpa Vitya.' he smiled. 'I wish you could be here to hear her say it. It would have made you so happy.'

'You talking to the old man again?' Yurio asked, coming to sit beside Yuuri on the bench. 'Hi, Viktor.' he turned to Yuuri. 'How are you feeling?'

Yuuri sighed. 'Today would have been our thirtieth wedding anniversary. It's supposed to get easier with time, but I always feel better spending it together.'

Yurio nodded and looked out over the graveyard where the sun was just beginning to set. 'Why don't you come over for dinner? Tatiana always loves to see you. Besides, she won her first competition today. That's double the reason to celebrate.'

Yuuri smiled. 'Thank you Yurio, I would love to.' he looked down at the name on the headstone. 'I just need a few more minutes.'

'Of course,' Yurio replied and stood up. 'I'll wait in the car, give you two some privacy.'

'Thanks.'

Yurio went to leave but stopped. He didn't turn to look at the older man, but said, 'Oh, and Yuuri?'

'Yes?' Yuuri's voice was thick with unshed tears.

'Happy anniversary.'

'Thanks, Yura.'

Yurio didn't have to look. He could hear Yuuri's smile.

**Author's Note:**

> So by now its pretty easy to tell the Viktor is my favourite character mostly because I keep torturing him. I'm sorry Viktor I love you!
> 
> Anyway, if you still don't hate me because of this fic check out my tumblr trebelandbass and come scream to me about this show and this ship because I am absolute trash and know no one in this fandom. 
> 
> https://trebelandbass.tumblr.com/


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